1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to advertising systems in which retail advertisements are broadcast to a remote location for reception and display via a monitor for viewing by potential retail purchasers. More particularly, this invention relates to advertising systems in which the advertisements are broadcast and received by monitors positioned in retail stores for point-of-purchase viewing by the shoppers in the store.
2. Description of the Background Art
Presently, advertisements in the form of television commercials are viewed by potentially millions of television viewers. Therefore, television commercials have been an effective means for advertising retail products to potential purchasers. However, every year television viewers are exposed to more commercials and shorter commercials. As a result of this sensory overload, many viewers avoid commercials entirely by changing from one television channel to another via their hand-held television remote control. As this commercial clutter and television changing increases, the impact of each advertisement declines. Indeed, it is estimated that one-fifth of all television viewers pay no attention to television commercials. Additionally, until recently, daytime television was regarded as an efficient and affordable alternative to prime time television. However, daytime ratings have declined in the past ten years. Additionally, because of changing lifestyles, viewing among women has declined by one-third. Furthermore, because of a shift to independent stations, cable television, and video cassette recorders, commercial networks now reach only three-quarters of the available audience.
In view of the foregoing, several systems have been recently developed for displaying advertisements on television monitors positioned throughout a store. In-store advertising of this nature is particularly advantageous because the sight and action of television is combined with the impact of point-of-purchase to deliver a powerful and timely message in the retail store where buying decisions are being made.
For example, an advertising system known as InfoChannel produced by Scala, Inc., 1801 Robert Fulton Drive, Suite 400, Reston, Va. 22091 allows advertisement pages with text and illustrations to be transmitted from a control center to a network of television sets. InfoChannel can also connect several television networks located in different buildings by using computers and modems which permit the advertisements to be sent to the remote locations over standard telephone lines. Control software known as InfoNet permits different advertisements to be sent to different locations automatically. Finally, InfoChannel includes means for broadcasting the advertisements to remote locations by inserting the advertisement data into a television channel's free space in such a manner that the advertising data can be extracted from the television signal by the computers at each location. In this manner, broadcasts via satellite to thousands of locations can occur simultaneously.
Another advertising system known as AdVision produced by Video Arts Systems & Technology, Inc. of Sea Girt Village Center, 2175 Hwy. 35, #8-R, Sea Girt, N.J. 08750 delivers advertisements and electronic bulletin-board type presentations by means of a production workstation and a plurality of receiving player systems positioned at remote locations. The advertisements are transmitted from the production workstation to the receiving player systems at the remote locations over cable television.
Similar to InfoChannel, a system known as Videofax produced by The Videofax Company, 60 Madison Avenue, Suite 903, New York, N.Y. 10010 enables still video images to be transmitted across standard telephone networks or corporate data networks to remote receiver systems, which then display the video images.
Another advertising system known as NewMedia produced by NewMedia Corporation of 201 North Union Street, Alexandria, Va. 22314 employs satellites or modems and telephone lines, to transmit advertisements from a digital studio to remote locations for display by computer or television monitors. A communications manager controls the file server of the data television network with appropriate data compression, inscription, forward error correction, format conversion and addressing to increase reception reliability.
The above advertising systems have enjoyed various levels of commercial success. There have been several drawbacks. For example, the transmission of advertisements through the use of modems and telephone lines necessarily precludes the simultaneous transmission of the advertisements to the remote locations. Indeed, even when banks of modems are employed with a corresponding number of telephone lines, the transmissions for the most part must occur serially rather than concurrently. Additionally, because of the large data size of video images relative to maximum modem speeds, transmission via telephone lines take considerable amounts of time and are therefore very costly over the long term. In contrast, the advertising systems noted above that employ satellites, allow the advertisements to be transmitted to a group of remote locations by simultaneous broadcast. Furthermore, the bandwith of satellite transmitters and receivers are much greater than that of telephone lines and therefore the transmission time is substantially reduced. Hence, broadcasting via satellite is significantly less expensive over the long term even when the more expensive satellite equipment costs are amortized. Unfortunately, satellite broadcasting is a one-way system and therefore, although significantly reliable, there exists the possibility that a broadcast is not received or properly received, by one or more of the remote locations.
Finally, the above advertising systems which employ existing cable television networks are disadvantaged to the extent that usage fees must always be paid to the cable television company. Furthermore, since cable television is usually localized with respect to a city or a portion of the city, the advertisements must be transmitted to each of the cable television networks by modems and telephone lines or satellites, thereby having the drawbacks noted above.
It is an object of this invention to provide an improvement which overcomes the aforementioned inadequacies of the prior art systems and provides an improvement which is a significant contribution to the advancement of advertising systems.